Unfortunately, none of the lands from this expansion can be used in our metaphor, because we want max-mountains for Koth
The artifacts are similarly lackluster. They are equipment that is worse than the various Swords, or human/tokens centric.
There are a few red cards that show some promise, and I'd wager they are not what most people are interested in.
Archwing Demon: Back in the day, I played Viashino Sandstalker, but it was in a deck with Pandamoneum (to trigger ETB), and Ruby Medallion (to make it cost less). This guy is terrible compared to Koth. The only card it works better against is Oblivion Ring.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 2
Bonfire of the Damned: We are a relatively big-mana deck, and we have Faithless Looting to pitch cards we can't use, so this is worthy of consideration. As a creature deck, having the spell hit only-them allows our guys to get through, or finish off bigger guys. It's also a RSZ to the dome off the top. There is no doubting that this is a pretty crazy card against tokens, or other aggro decks in miracle mode.
Non-miracle mode:
3 mana: 1 damage
5 mana: 2 damage
7 mana: 3 damage
This isn't great.
Slagstorm is a card I'm boarding in against aggro, and this only really catches up to slagstorm (getting both modes for 4 mana on turn 5, best case?). It'd cause the deck to play out differently, in that we'd be rabidly dropping threats, followed by a one-sided slagstorm, rather than sandbagging threats, slagstorming, and re-deploying.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 5 (on miracle blowout potential only)
Dangerous Wager: Great as the last card in your hand. Since we actually kinda like playing out our lands, it could be seen as being "better" than Faithless Looting, which we are playing two of at this time. It is actual card advantage, but late game, Faithless Looting is a draw 4. This is a draw two. This also doesn't fix you early game at all, so it is a pure late-game play.
I do like this card late, which means it'd have to be a low-count card.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 6
Demolish: We need a artifact destruction spell bad. I am lost as to what the best option is.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 4
Various 4+cc cards that start at 0-2 power and grow by perhaps one a turn (Heirs of Stormkirk, Havengul Vampire): Too expensive, too slow for the proliferate theme.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 3
Hound of Gristlebrand: Not a bad ratio of power to casting cost, but it is a ground creature, that only gets +1's after it died the first time. I love me some double strike, that's to be sure, but this guy needed to be a 2cc 1/1 for this deck, and I'd replace berserker...
Likelyhood of inclusion: 5
Malignus: I'm sure I'd "get" some people with it voiding pro red (sword), but at 5cc, Inferno Titan just seems better for the time being.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 4
Reforge the Soul: Wheel's a powerful effect, but we'd need more things like Lightning Bolt, and less things like Red Sun's Zenith for this to work out too well. It can't be overlooked though. That your opponent gets the first bite at the apple most likely is a real killer. Need a card like Earthquake, and we'd be in business here.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 4
Somberwald Vigalente: I considered playing Ashmouth Hounds, and this guy is probably just better. He wins the fights early, gets damage through for Berserker, is hard to kill in combat, or trades up. (Kills x/1 first strikers, like Thalia). This guy isn't too bad.
Likelyhood of inclusion:6
Rite of Ruin: Just play a Titan, and you get all three effects (aka game win)
Likelyhood of inclusion: 2
Pillar of Flame: Interesting, but RSZ covers us pretty well here. And we can make some big values of x.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 5
Thatcher's Revolt: 3 mana for 3 damage is not great. We have Volt Charge for that, and it has additional synergy with the deck.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 1
Thunderous Wrath: Great in miracle-mode. Doesn't kill titans in any mode. Does kill hero, so that's something. 6 mana for 5 damage is not something we want to get locked into. This deals with big guys, but we'll see other ways of dealing with that soon... 5 damage is alot, and we do have faithless looting.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 6
Tibalt the Fiend-Blooded: I am pretty sure in the last month or so I made a wish that Red would get a planeswalker, and a cheap one, and I got my wish. But I feel like I was watching "Wishmaster" (be careful what you wish for) with what I got for it.
I could talk for a year about this guy. He competes directly with Faithless Looting, and FL probably does his job better than he does. And I'm playing a deck with 24-25 MOUNTAINS, and 7 proliferate effects.
The problem to me is that his + ability is not good. You have to spend a card for it, and random discard card disadvantage (you have to cast the guy), that you might not even want to activate, but have to cast in case you do want to activate it, is not awesome. On top of this, his -4 seems horrible (I would not play it as a card that cost 4 mana, or perhaps even 3 mana, and it's not like you're going to activate it more than once). His -6 is powerful, but requires a crazy board stall, which is pretty unlikely with all the fliers, Heros, etc running around.
I want this guy to be good, I really do.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 3
Vexing Devil: I don't want a 1 mana 4 damage to a player spell. I would play a 1 mana 4/3. Guess which option the player is going to pick... Well, the 4/3 when they have a wrath, the 4 damage when they don't.
If I was mono-one drops, or looking for the "last 4 damage" to kill someone, this card would be great. But when I kill someone, I am typically at a point in the game where things like Timely Reinforcements are dead cards, rather than the trouble they give other red decks (which want this guy)
Timely's pretty awesome against this guy. Next...
Likelyhood of inclusion: 3
Zealous Conscripts: Now here's the answer to my calls. It's an act of treason that does 3 damage when it comes into play, and only costs 2 more, and leaves me with a 3/3. I forsee stealing many a Titan, or Hero with this. It's never dead, because it steals anything (even swords) The additional three damage from the attacker pushes the damage from this up to the point where it might be the "last few damage" to kill them, unlike a spell like Act of Aggression, which is likely to do 6 damage to them, and then I lose. This probably means I can try to go toe to toe with white aggro decks (I lose to hero), and have a solid sideboard card against ramp.
Love it.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 8
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